The above image shows the front side of a Savings Account Ledger Sheet for an account at Yardley Branch (Account Number: YL 217). Yardley branch was opened on July 5th 1930, and by March 31st 1931 the number of deposit accounts opened was 555 - therefore, this account was opened in late 1930 or early 1931. The sheet reproduced above covers transactions of the account from February 1955 to March 1962.

 

Individual ledger sheets (measuring approximately 12½" by 10") were bound in a ledger binder (right). This system replaced bound ledgers that appear to have been used from 1919 to about 1924.

 

The example illustrated above is a continuation sheet showing that by February 1955, the depositor had a balance of £400 that, by September 1956, had increased to almost £600. The level of transactions on this account (posted to both sides of ledger sheets) required the replacement of an earlier full sheet. The replacement sheet (known as a Continuation Sheet) has its security number pre-printed at lower left: 598239.

When the depositor made a withdrawal of £3 on April 2nd 1955, the amount of Annual Interest (£9 - 13s. - 5d.) would have been entered into the passbook and a new Specimen Signature obtained - the cashier taking the signature has placed the date against the signature and initialled it to indicate that comparison has been made with the signature on the previous ledger sheet.

 

The 'stars' rubber stamped against the account balance at each March 31st indicate that the account balance has been agreed by the Auditors with the extracted list of all account balances prepared by the Bank's staff in accordance with the Bank's Regulations - Rule 14 of the Regulations requiring that each branch had a list of all of its accounts (listed by Account Number and Balance) available for viewing by depositors.

 

On September 24th 1956, the depositor withdrew £581 leaving a balance of 17/6d. The amounts of interest credited at March 31st in the years 1957 to 1962 have not been entered into the passbook as indicated by the lack of initials against the interest credit. Consequently, the depositor has a passbook showing a balance of 17/6d., not appreciating that a balance in the account of about £600 for the period April 1st to September 24th 1956 has earned interest of £6 - 16s. - 5d. Subsequently, with the acount balance exceeding £1, interest has continued to accumulate. After a period of ten years without the passbook being presented, such an account was designated as a 'Dormant Over £1' account, and the ledger sheet was transferred to a separate ledger where more stringent control of withdrawals could be maintained to avoid fraud - for example the passbook being presented for a withdrawal, the presenter knowing that the depositor was deceased. Yardley branch had its manual accounting system transferred to machine posting in 1962 as indicated by the 'TRANSFERRED TO LEDGER CARD' stamp.

 

Although Dormant Over £1 accounts were held in a separate ledger, individual accounts retained their original number. The original system of numbering accounts sequentially, starting at 1, was replaced with the advent of Computerisation. The new account number allocated to replace YL 217 has been annotated on the ledger sheet: 15536214.

The reverse page of the Ledger Sheet had heading spaces for only the Account Number and the Depositor's Name. This example was used for a Number 2 Department account - indicated by the 'T' that was appended to all account numbers in this savings department.

 

A different design of Loose Leaf Ledger was used for House Purchase accounts.